Fossil fuel, which dominates the world’s energy supply, faces serious environmental and sustainability challenges. This study investigated the production and evaluation of bio-briquettes from African oil bean seed husk (AOBSH) and sawdust (SD), bound with cassava starch, to offer a sustainable and eco-friendly alternative to fossil fuel. A multi-level factorial experimental design was employed, involving five biomass (AOBSH and SD) blend ratios and three binder quantities (30 g, 50 g, and 80 g). The physical and energy-related properties of both uncharred and carbonized briquettes, including moisture content, ash content, volatile matter, fixed carbon, and calorific value were studied. For uncharred briquettes, fixed carbon ranged from 0.24% to 15.83%, volatile matter from 19.05% to 45.74%, ash content from 5.4% to 36.23%, and moisture content from 33.5% to 51%. Carbonized briquettes exhibited improved characteristics, with fixed carbon reaching up to 53.65% with significantly reduced volatile matter. Results also indicated that biomass composition significantly influenced fixed carbon, volatile matter, and moisture content, while binder quantity had a lesser effect. Interaction plots confirmed that optimal briquette quality was driven more by biomass composition than binder quantity. The best briquette was obtained from carbonized AOBSH at 100 % composition with 80 g of cassava starch binder, and this briquette gave a fixed carbon content of 53.65 % and a calorific value of 54.00 kJ/kg. The study concludes that briquettes made from AOBSH and SD using cassava starch binder has great potential for clean energy generation and agricultural waste valorization. This innovation promotes sustainable energy goals and rural energy diversification strategies.
Okechukwu et al. (Mon,) studied this question.